Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Good Reasons to Have a Bunch of Friends Over for Book Club

1. You get to stay up past your bedtimes.2. Laughter.3. You have a nice, clean house the next day.4. Your friend's lemon pound cake.5. An excuse to make these.6. Your son is happy to watch a movie and eat what you had an excuse to make (ie. he's happily occupied, and so are you).7. The realization that none of you really liked the book that much.8. Allowing the not-so-great book to provide a great springboard for discussion about ethnic heritage, backgrounds, and parental expectations.9. Going off topic. Repeatedly.

You're right, Chani - and I think that's part of the reason we had so much fun!

Oh, Marye! That's so funny, because at one point we asked what everyone thought of the book. And most of us were luke warm, but one person said, "I kind of liked it!" And we asked what, specifically, she liked, and her response was, "Because it was a book for grown-ups!" ;-)

it sounds like fun but a book club would cause me too much stress. Too much pressure to read something for a certain date.

My current book is now halfway and I've been reading it for more than 4 weeks I think. Other books get finished within 10 days. My reading speed can vary very much and the last thing I need is another thing on my "must do" list.

Goofball and Greg - this has been an experiment for all of us - it was our first meeting. There are actually ten of us, and others of us are meeting next Tuesday at another member's house. I'll be at both because I was the organizer. I agree about the pressure to read, but it really wasn't bad.

Becca - Believe it or not, it was The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. I loved The Interpreter of Maladies, but this one just left me cold a bit, although there were elements of it that were lovely. That was kind of what the consensus was.

Sarita, maybe you should try to start one? All you need is a couple of other friends who like to read.

Haha. I though of you and book clubs as I watched this movie last night Little Children with Kate Winslet. There is this one scene of a book club discussing Madame Boavary and no one liked it except the adulterous character played by Kate, who was the youngest one in the room. Was a little comical to me with the older ladies breaking down the 'sex' scenes.I need to join one!

Oh, Glamah, I can see that being a really funny scene. The "somewhat" graphic sex scene in The Namesake was a deal-breaker for one of our readers... I just take those in stride - I feel sex is just part of life.

Ben and Jenn, I've wanted to join a book club forever, too, which is why I started this one, lol. Jenn, it must be hard to move to an entirely new place even with your love. Ben, EVERYWHERE should have a good public transportation system. We don't really here, either.

Maybe we should start an online book club? We can do that via some kind of chat set-up?

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AlternativeU is an (in process) nonprofit designed to help find useful, income-generating or debt free education experiences for 18- to 24-year-olds who do not choose to follow the traditional college route.